The Slayer 314 Project: Whispers
by Philip S
Summary: When Riley finds out about Buffy being the Slayer his plans do not include dinner and a movie. For the Slayer is the missing ingredient for the Initiative's 314 experiment.
1. Part 1: Buffy

The Slayer 314 Project: Whispers  
  
by Philip S.  
  
Summary: The Initiative is not what it seems, as Riley Finn's discovery of the Slayer's identity rings in the final stage of the 314 project.  
  
Spoilers: 4th Season up to the episode "Hush" on Buffy and "Hero" on Angel. After that it's AU.  
  
Rating: R  
  
  
  
#  
  
Part 1: Buffy  
  
#  
  
There is fire everywhere around me. So much fire. I can feel it crawling across my skin, eating away at my body, drowning me in pain. Why does it hurt so much? I am on fire and there is nothing I can do to stop the pain. Can't someone stop the pain?  
  
Flash. Someone is screaming directly in front of me. A man in a white lab coat. He is on fire, just like me. He is screaming his pain out into the world for everyone to hear. I don't scream. Why can't I scream? The burning body is running around, the man within desperately looking for a way to escape from the flames. Why can't I run away?  
  
Flash. The room around me has become an inferno. The white walls are bubbling and cracking, the flames devouring them like a kid does candy, reaching up to the ceiling, halogen lights exploding in showers of white- hot plastic and glass.  
  
There is so much screaming.  
  
People are everywhere, burning, screaming, dying. Some of them are wearing white lab coats, the flames like those very much. They catch fire so easily. Others are in uniform, green clothes that burn just as brightly. Alarms are blaring in the distance, drowned out by the screams.  
  
There is so much pain. The air around me seems to bleed and still I can't even scream. Glaring fingers of agony are stabbing into my eyes, cutting through my flesh like blades. Pain a thousand times worse than the feeling of razor-sharp fangs sinking into my throat. I want to scream.  
  
Without warning the force that has held me immobile suddenly falls away and I crumble to the ground, my arms and legs useless. The room spins around me, burning bodies, blackened walls, flames, a wild dance that makes me dizzy. I can feel the hot metal floor beneath me, but it seems a distant sensation.  
  
The pain fades and pleasant numbness takes its place.  
  
It takes me a while to realize that the absence of pain is probably not a good thing.  
  
A body is lying close by. A young woman, her face turned toward me. Her eyes are open and she stares at me with the supreme disinterest only the departed manage. There is a terrible emptiness in those eyes even as I can see the flames that have already devoured half her body.  
  
Someone starts to scream, someone close by. Who is screaming now? There are so many screams but this one is so close, I can almost feel it against my ears. The flames are coming closer, pressing in on me from all sides, and I can't see who is screaming.  
  
A second scream joins in, a scream so terrible it tears my thoughts apart. Someone is dying horribly, a thousand demons tearing away her flesh and she wants to share her pain with all the world. Her scream sends fresh waves of agony through my veins and my blood feels like molten lava.  
  
I have to get up. The flames are all around me, licking at me, trying to devour me. I have to get out, I have to get away. I don't want to die! I am not even nineteen years old, I don't want to die! There is no strength in my legs and arms, though. How can there be such pain if I can't even move my arms and legs?  
  
Somewhere in between I realize that one of the screaming voices so close to me is my own.  
  
The ground beneath me heaves and trembles, the rumbling of explosions echo through the room. There are still people screaming, I can hear them, but they are more distant now. Those that can still scream are those that are still running, running to get away from here. The fire is all around me now. I have to get to my feet!  
  
My skin seems to crawl off my body, tearing bloody pieces of flesh with it, but I finally manage to move. Another body is next to me. Is that the other one who is still screaming along with my own voice? Is it one or more voices? I can't tell anymore. I can't stop screaming. Why can't I stop screaming? Who is the other one?  
  
No time, I can't stay here! Every movement is pure agony, but I have to get out. I can see my arms and flames are dancing across them, my skin is blackened and starting to bubble. Can't concern myself with that now! Too much pain! Need to get out of here! My eyes find a door and in between waves of violent seizures I manage to get moving. Door! A way out!  
  
Corridors pass by me in a blur. Flames are everywhere, the tremble of more explosions is cracking the ceiling, the floors, everything is coming apart. More people are screaming, running, trying to get out of this underground death trap. Faces come into my field of vision and vanish again, all of them screaming, panicked, some are on fire. So much fire.  
  
A mirror, warped by the flames. I am no longer in the underground lab, I am on the surface. Yes, I recognize this. Lowell house, the building that hides the entrance. How did I get up here? I have no memory of climbing stairs. The warped mirror shows me something that can't possibly be me.  
  
How can I still be on fire without being dead yet?  
  
The house is crumbling around me, more fire, more screaming people. The floor gives way beneath me and I run without thinking, the pain fading into the background. Get out! Need to get out!  
  
Flash! I remember being taken here. Someone took me here, betrayed me. A man, someone I liked. Riley? Agony shooting through me, a bolt of electricity. What did he do to me? Why did he do that?  
  
Something explodes directly behind me and the shock wave picks me up like a leave in the wind. Fire, walls, suddenly outside. Pavement coming up to meet me, something hard impacts against my face. More screaming, fire, pain.  
  
Why is there so much pain?  
  
A soft coldness embraces me and I realize that it is raining outside, raindrops caressing my burning skin. It feels so very good. I feel something moving inside my head, something that reaches out to me, embracing me with tender arms, cradling me like an infant against a body of soft nothingness, soothing the pain with a beautiful singing voice.  
  
Darkness comes to swallow me and I don't resist.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	2. Part 2: Angel

Part 2: Angel  
  
#  
  
Two hours and seventeen minutes ago Cordelia had a vision. She is probably still sore and wavering between blessing and cursing Doyle for passing on his gift to her. She hasn't had much time to get used to it yet, especially with Doyle's loss still so recent and raw.  
  
Nevertheless, five minutes after the vision I was in my car and starting toward Sunnydale, thanking the Powers that it was still several hours until dawn. Truth to tell, though, the sun couldn't have kept me away. Tinted windows can do wonders if you need to go somewhere in a hurry.  
  
Three minutes ago I arrived in Sunnydale and knew something was wrong. Didn't need a vision, actually. The huge plume of smoke rising into the night sky above the Sunnydale College grounds gave me all the clues I needed. Cordy saw fire in her vision. Some kind of underground installation, filled with burning bodies and screams.  
  
Buffy in the midst of it.  
  
Forty-six minutes until dawn, yet the night is bright as day. I have to abandon my car a good way away from the college grounds, as the streets are packed with emergency vehicles, panicked people, and onlookers. Precious minutes pass while I elbow my way through the thickening crowds towards the site of the devastation.  
  
The lush college grounds are in flames. Most of the fire seems concentrated in and close to a large hole in the ground, looking as if something below blew up and then caved in. The rest are probably secondary fires, started by flaming debris. Dozens of firefighters are doing their utmost to quench the flames.  
  
I try to get a sense of Buffy. There was a time we could feel each other, could tell when the other was close. I'm looking for that familiar tingle in my belly that tells me the other half of my soul is close by, yet there is nothing. Or maybe there is just too much distraction. Smoke, fire, screaming, so many people.  
  
I check my watch again. Thirty-one minutes until dawn. There is no way I can conduct any kind of reasonable search of so large an area in so short a time. My heart screams for me to start anyway. Buffy is here somewhere, maybe hurt, maybe dying. I need to find her.  
  
The rational part of me puts a stop to that. Cordy's vision was vague, it only showed that Buffy was somehow mixed up in this. Maybe she isn't even here. Maybe she got out in time and is now home, safe and sound.  
  
The others. I need to check with them. Willow lives somewhere here on campus, yes. I remember her telling Cordy that she shares a dorm with Buffy. Maybe they're both there, trying to figure out what all the commotion is about.  
  
Okay, approach things rationally. There has to be a register around here somewhere, a place I can get their dorm house and room number from. Scratch that! Takes too long. Lots of college students around here. Some of them are bound to know them, know where they live. I look around for a likely candidate.  
  
Even better. I spot Willow standing close by, looking as if she just climbed out of bed. I run toward her, aware of the ticking clock. I need to get under cover soon. Willow's eyes are fixed to the flames and she doesn't even react to me until I put a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Wha ... Angel? You ... you're here? You're not ..."  
  
Anticipating the question I shake my head. "No, Willow. I'm not evil. What happened here? Cordelia had a vision and ..."  
  
"Cordelia had a vision?" Willow asks me, obviously completely confused.  
  
"Long story!" I tell her. "Suffice to say I was told that something bad is going on here and Buffy is involved. What do you know?"  
  
Willow stares back and forth between me and the fire, her eyes wide. From the looks of her she doesn't have a clue what is going on.  
  
"Angel, I ... Buffy said she wanted to meet ... a friend, yes a friend. Said they had things to talk about. That was ... yesterday, yeah. Yesterday morning. I ... I haven't seen her since, but I wasn't worried. I mean, she ... she is the Slayer, right? It's normal when she doesn't get home all night, right? Patrol and all."  
  
I can see how frightened she is, fearing that something has happened to her best friend. Believe me, Willow, I can emphasize. The thought of anything hurting her ... no, can't think about that now. Stay focused!  
  
"This friend of hers," I ask Willow, "do you know where he or she lived?"  
  
Willow just nods and points toward the burning hole in the ground.  
  
"Lowell House. Right there."  
  
#  
  
Sunlight forces me into hiding. I didn't want to leave Willow, distraught as she is, but there was no helping it. I told her to come to Giles' place as quickly as possible, making my own way there through the sewers.  
  
It was in these tunnels that I told Buffy I would leave her. Could I have chosen a worse setting for that little revelation?  
  
No time for memories and regrets. Maybe Giles knows more than Willow. Knows why Buffy went to that house, what could possibly have happened down there. The sewer walls pass by me in a blur and I arrive before Giles' doorstep, my coat covering me from the sun, without any clear memory how I got here.  
  
Willow arrives almost simultaneously and simply walks into Giles' apartment, too worried to even knock or say a word of greeting. Shrugging, I follow her, glad that Giles' invitation still stands. The former Watcher looks up from the TV. Giles with a TV? Then I see that he is watching the news, which is currently showing a picture of a big hole in the ground.  
  
"Angel? What ... Willow, what happened? I turned on the news when I saw that smoke from the college and ..."  
  
"Something blew up Lowell House, Giles." Willow says, her voice sounding like she might go into shock. "Buffy was going to go there to meet Riley and ... and I was about to go get her because we wanted to go to the college library for some books we need for psych class and then everything went boom and the house blew up. It just blew up, just like that, no warning, just a boom and there was fire everywhere and ..."  
  
I silence her babble by placing a hand on her shoulder and it's as if I've cut the strings of a puppet. She collapses to the couch and I can see tears on her cheeks.  
  
"Giles, Buffy was in there." She weeps. "What if she ... she ..."  
  
Giles' face remains stoic, but over two centuries have taught me how to look past such a mask. He loves her like the daughter he never had and the thought that she might be gone ... she can't be gone. I would know if she were dead, I would know. She is alive. She has to be.  
  
"Do any of you have an idea what she wanted at this house?" I ask them.  
  
For a moment the two of them look at each other, then Giles clears his throat and takes off his glasses to clean them.  
  
"Lowell House is where a friend of Buffy's lives, Angel." Giles says. "His name is Riley Finn and he is ..." His voice trails off and I know what he means. A friend of Buffy's. A boyfriend. Damn.  
  
This is what I wanted for her, isn't it? Someone normal with whom she could share her life. Someone who can take her out into the sun, can maybe give her children someday, someone with whom she can grow old.  
  
I hate Riley Finn already.  
  
"Any news what might have caused the explosion yet?" I ask Giles, motioning toward the TV.  
  
"They suspect it was a gas leak, or maybe a student prank gone horrible wrong, but no facts yet."  
  
"What about that hole in the ground?" I ask him. "From the looks of that crater there must have been some kind of cave or large tunnel beneath the house."  
  
Giles looks back at the TV, not having noticed that before, it seems. He looks back at Willow.  
  
"Do you think ...?" The witch asks him, seeing his gaze.  
  
"It would be possible." He replies. I kind of feel left out of the conversation.  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
Giles sighs again, once again cleaning his glasses.  
  
"Over the past few weeks we have become aware of some kind of military outfit operating in Sunnydale. Buffy saw soldiers in the streets and then Spike turned up, no longer able to bite people. He told us ..."  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	3. Part 3: Faith

Part 3: Faith  
  
#  
  
Hush now! Faith is sleeping.  
  
Has slept for some time now, truth to tell. Many a month, ever since they found her broken body on the back of a truck, a wound in her belly as if she had been stabbed by someone.  
  
Someone who was her friend.  
  
Yet it isn't the wound, the doctors say, long healed by now, which has caused her to sleep for so long a time. No one knows what happened to Faith, at least no one who is telling, but it seems she has fallen down from a high place, fallen on her head.  
  
Faith is sleeping, but her eyes move behind her closed lids, seeing things that are not real, can not be real. Can they?  
  
Who knows what sleeping Slayers dream?  
  
The sign on the front door of the Bronze says "DISCO DANCE CONTEST". Disco? Faith doesn't remember going to the Bronze. Somehow she has a feeling that she is no longer welcome here. Wasn't this the hangout of some friends she knows? No, not her friends. Friends she might have, could have had, but that was a long time ago.  
  
They are not her friends.  
  
Behind the door the scenery fits the theme of the evening. Colored lights whirl around on the walls and the floor, accompanied by the bright glitter of a silvery disco globe hanging in the center of the room, old music blaring from the loud speakers. High-pitched male voices. The Bee Gees?  
  
"Faith, baby!" Someone yells at her and she turns around, only now realizing that she, too, is dressed to fit tonight's theme. A skirt (she never wears skirts, does she?), high platform boots, colorful blouse, her hair much longer than she remembers it. With colored ribbons woven into it.  
  
She knows the man who has spoken to her, doesn't she? Old guy, British accent. His hair shouldn't be like this, so long and with the major sideburns. Red polyester suit? Didn't he always wear tweed?  
  
"Giles?" She asks, quite sure not that his name is Giles.  
  
"Dance or die, baby!" He yells at her, swinging his hips to the music. "Dance or die!"  
  
She doesn't want to dance with him. No, she is quite sure that she is here to dance with someone else. Or maybe just meet, she isn't too clear about that yet.  
  
"Look me up when you get back, baby!" Giles yells after her when she walks through the dancing crowd. A new Bee Gees song blares across the speakers, even as someone bumps into her.  
  
"Stayin' alive is highly overrated, Slayer!" A new voice. A new face, too. Does she know this man with the bleach blonde hair and the British accent? (How come so many people here have British accents?) No, she doesn't think so. The sharp-cut white suit he is wearing doesn't fit him. Clashes with the leather jump boots and the coat he has draped over one arm.  
  
"Slayer?" She asks the strange man, who doesn't breathe except to inhale the smoke of his cigarette. "I'm not the Slayer!"  
  
"Is that right?" He doesn't sound like he's buying it.  
  
"I don't care about saving innocent people or killing Vampires!"  
  
He laughs and she can see sharpened teeth inside his mouth. How do they fit in there anyway? They're much too long.  
  
"Good for you!" He toasts her with a drink he didn't have a second ago, filled with a thick red liquid. The glass rings as her own glass clinks against it. "What about her, though?" The Vampire asks, motioning toward the bar.  
  
A blonde girl is sitting there, dressed in nothing but a skintight crimson body suit, which covers her from the neck down, leaving nothing to the imagination. One of her hands idly plays with a knife, running a finger over the blade, cutting herself open without drawing blood. Her other hand picks olives from a small bowl on the bar.  
  
How come the olives are yelling?  
  
"B?" Faith whispers. Conflicting emotions. Her sister, her enemy. Helped her, fought her, loved her, stabbed her.  
  
"You're bleedin', luv!" The blonde Vampire says. "Mind if I have a taste?"  
  
The blouse she is wearing is soaked with blood, some of it dripping on the carpet. A new band is now playing on the stage. Short guy with a shaggy wolf head jams the guitar. A blonde and a redhead hit the keyboard, sharing kisses between notes. A dark-haired boy (Xander? Yes, his name is Xander) is working the drums.  
  
"Pardon me!" The blonde Vampire puts a straw into Faith's wound, eagerly starting to suck. She never notices. B is still sitting at the bar, but now smiles broadly as someone else appears on stage.  
  
"Start spreading the news!" Angel starts to sing as the band accompanies him. "Slayer's coming today!"  
  
"Yeah, baby!" Buffy applauds!  
  
"I'm not the Slayer!" Faith whispers. Why doesn't anybody understand that she is not the Slayer? (She doesn't have the right to call herself that anymore.)  
  
"'Cause she just wants to be part of it," Angel continues, "End of the world!"  
  
The little olives Buffy's eating are not olives, Faith realizes. Faces. Little faces, screaming as she gulps them down. Why are they screaming?  
  
"She will come back to the city that never sleeps!" Angel's voice rings out again.  
  
"Stop it!" Faith yells, but no one listens to her. The Vampire is still happily sucking her blood. Giles swivels his hips on the dance floor.  
  
"And though she's not number one, queen of the graves, top of the Slay, ain't number one ..."  
  
Angel holds the last note, the sound rising until Faith has to press her hands to her ears. Buffy rises from the bar, setting herself on fire as she passes a table with black candles on it.  
  
"B! You're ..." Faith tries to scream above the piercing sound, trying to warn Buffy of what is happening to her.  
  
"Don't worry about it!" Buffy says, her entire body in flames now. "I'll be all-new and better real soon!"  
  
A burning hand reaches out to touch her cheek and the second Slayer screams.  
  
"Buffy!"  
  
Faith sits up in her hospital bed, panting, trying to make sense of her surrounding. Why is she in a hospital bed? Wasn't she in her apartment, packing her things to move while having a chat with B? Or was that fighting against her? She isn't sure.  
  
There is a digital clock in her room, complete with date. Today's date.  
  
"Six months?" She whispers, her tongue heavy from disuse.  
  
What happened? The Mayor? Buffy? Angel? So many jumbled images. Did she really do all that? The poisoned arrow? The man in the alley? That kind old professor? No, it isn't possible!  
  
Giles! Giles said to look her up when she got back!  
  
She has to go see Giles! Now!  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	4. Part 4: Giles

Part 4: Giles  
  
#  
  
I am sure that some Watchers have had days when their duty subjected them to stranger and more painful events than this. Unfortunately I have neither the time nor the patience to look them up in the Watcher diaries.  
  
Buffy is gone, maybe ... no, not dead! I won't believe that until I found a body and personally made sure that it is her and not a doppelganger. Only then will I allow myself to believe that the fate of all Slayers might finally have caught up with my Slayer.  
  
Angel's return at this same time worries and calms me. I worry because I doubt Angel's mysterious Powers That Be would send him a vision unless we were truly facing a crisis. On the other hand it is calming because I know he will stop at nothing to help her, no matter the odds, with total disregard to his personal safety.  
  
Then there is Faith.  
  
I admit to myself that I hoped she would never rise from her hospital bed, because I had no idea how to deal with her once that happened. I still don't have an idea, to be honest.  
  
Faith burst into my apartment an hour ago and started screaming at me. Asking me where Buffy was. At first I thought that she would attack me, try and attack Buffy if she found her, but then I saw her eyes.  
  
I don't believe I have seen such fear in anyone's eyes since Buffy thought Angel would die at Faith's hands. Faith has babbled about some kind of dream she had, a dream in which I told her to come and visit me. A dream where Angel sang about the end of the world and Buffy was on fire, saying she would be better real soon.  
  
Prophetic Slayer dreams. Most of the times they are useful only in hindsight. The last time Buffy had such a dream it warned us of the coming of the Gentlemen, but we didn't understand the warning until after they had arrived. I just hope this won't be a repeat of history.  
  
I am profoundly thankful for Angel's presence right now. He was all set to go up against Faith the moment she burst into my apartment, but it never came to that. Faith didn't attack him, me, or Willow. After her first frantic rambling ceased she just sat down on my couch and looked like nothing but a scared child.  
  
"Something has happened to B," she is whispering over and over again.  
  
Angel and I quietly conferred out of her earshot and came to an agreement for the moment. The last thing we knew of Faith was that she tried to kill Angel, but Buffy was convinced that Faith helped her come up with the way to defeat the Mayor while they were both unconscious in the hospital. Maybe her time in coma really has changed her.  
  
Angel is giving her the benefit of the doubt for the moment, which isn't really a surprise to me. Angel thinks that everyone deserves a second chance except himself. So right now Faith is sitting on the couch, Angel torn between hovering around her and pacing for lack of something to do. Willow is on the computer, trying to find out more about the explosion, possible locations of this military installation, and whatever else she might be able to wring from this machine.  
  
And we are all waiting for another guest whose presence I don't really look forward to.  
  
"Open the bloody door," someone yells from outside and I can see Angel stiffen.  
  
"Calm down already! We're there." Xander opens the door and pushes Spike into my apartment, the blanket he's hiding under smoking and sizzling. Xander strolls in after him, making a show of standing in the sunlight. Only until he sees Angel, though.  
  
"What is deadboy doing here?" Xander asks, an angry look on his face.  
  
"What?" Spike looks up. "Oh great, the bloody poof!"  
  
Angel says nothing, but his glare speaks volumes. Spike glares right back at him, the tension between the two Vampires thick enough to cut it with a knife. Oz told us about Angel and Spike's encounter in Los Angeles. I wish we didn't need to bring these two together.  
  
"Spike," I address the blonde Vampire. "Have you heard about the incident at the college?"  
  
"Huge explosion." Spike grinned. "Probably a lot of people went up like torches. Real shame I wasn't there to watch."  
  
Angel moves faster than I can follow and next thing I know he has Spike against the wall, both of them sporting demon faces.  
  
"Buffy was in that explosion somewhere," Angel snarls in Spike's face. "Giles here tells me that you were down in that government installation and got yourself neutered. Well, I don't care about the chip. I will stake you right here, right now, unless you go with us into whatever remains of that installation and show us all there is to show. Do we have an understanding, boy?"  
  
I can see Spike open his mouth for one of his usual remarks, but something in Angel's eyes makes him shut up. Rage and worry is coming off Angel in waves and I fully believe he meant every word he just said. Apparently Spike believes it, too.  
  
"Okay, Peaches," he just says. "We'll play it your way. But don't blame me if we find the Slayer's burnt corpse down there! Which I hope we do, actually."  
  
For a moment I think Angel is about to stake Spike anyway, but then he lets the other Vampire go.  
  
"Sunset is still eight hours away. We'll go there through the sewers and try to find a way in without going by the surface. Should you turn up anything, call me on my cell!"  
  
I just nod, a bit surprised by Angel taking charge so easily. His months in LA really did change him, I guess.  
  
"Who's the cutie?" Spike asks, looking at Faith.  
  
God, I almost forgot she was there, not having said a single word for a while. Faith looks at Spike with a shimmer of recognition in her eyes. Did she meet Spike during her time in Sunnydale? I don't think so.  
  
"I'm Faith," she just says. "And I will come with you."  
  
"No," Angel just says.  
  
"B needs me. I have to ... I have to do something. Something has happened to her and ... I need to be there. Angel, please!"  
  
Angel looks at the dark-haired Slayer and I can see her squirming under his intense gaze. Angel really has changed, I see that now. He is more self- assured. Stronger than he was before. Faith doesn't budge, though, despite her obvious nervousness.  
  
"Very well. You can check out above ground in the college area. If you find any trace of Buffy or see someone in military garb or the like, call me!"  
  
"Maybe one of us should go with her?" Willow asks hesitantly.  
  
The thought of either Willow or Xander alone with Faith sends shivers down my spine. I can see Xander pale a little, involuntarily reaching for his throat. Faith almost choked him to death. Faith almost killed Willow by cutting her throat. So much that Faith did to these children. Can we really trust her?  
  
We can't. But it appears that Angel can.  
  
"No, that's not a good idea," Angel says. "If they captured Buffy, maybe learned her true identity, they will have people on the lookout for her friends. No one here knows Faith, though."  
  
As explanations go, it's a good one. Completely bogus, but a good one.  
  
"I will call you as soon as I find something," Faith says, taking a step closer to Angel. "I ... I will not let her down, Angel. I promise. Not again!"  
  
Angel nods, maybe seeing something in Faith's eyes that makes him trust her. Or maybe he is just playing along to see where she is going with this. I don't know. I have no idea.  
  
I wish I knew that Buffy was safe.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	5. Part 5: Xander

Part 5: Xander  
  
#  
  
"What do you think you're doing?"  
  
The voice makes me flinch. Damn it! All these months haven't been enough to regain my cool when it comes to her. Looking at her, all I see is her and me in that motel room bed, she straddling me, her fingers around my throat, slowly choking the life out of me with a look of pleasure in her dark eyes.  
  
"Pardon me for stating the obvious," I tell Faith, "but having you looking for Buffy alone doesn't exactly help me sleep well, you know?"  
  
She looks at me and I expect a condensing smile on her face, followed by her telling me that I could never do anything to stop her if she wanted to hurt Buffy and that I'm nothing but a powerless jerk.  
  
God knows I've told myself that often enough.  
  
Surprisingly none of that happens. Faith just looks at me with the same scared look she's had on ever since she turned up at Giles' and I find myself wondering how much of that is acting.  
  
"You'll slow me down," she simply says, continuing to walk across the campus grounds. I spend half a second contemplating how little brains I have being here, then I follow her.  
  
"Seeing as you have no idea where to look," I tell her, "I don't really see how I slow you down. Unless you want to make a quick getaway once the police comes around."  
  
She doesn't even have a sharp retort ready. Something has definitely changed in her. Before her coma a comment like that would have earned me either a scathing remark or a knife across my throat, but not this silence.  
  
What happened to her?  
  
"I need to find her," Faith mutters. "Something has happened to her and I have to find her."  
  
"Why? Because she put you in the hospital after you poisoned Angel? Looking to return the favor?"  
  
Her head snaps around to look at me and I tense in anticipation of a kick or a punch, but nothing the likes happens. I really have to have a death wish or something, hanging around her and saying stuff like that. What the hell is wrong with me? And her, for that matter?  
  
"Leave me alone, Xander!" Faith walks off again, hands shoved down her pockets, eyes darting around to do ... what? Find Buffy? Find some opportunity to cause mayhem? I have no idea anymore. Psycho Slayer from hell or repentant former psycho Slayer from hell, I don't really know anymore.  
  
Disregarding all inner sense and reason I continue to follow her.  
  
"What part of 'leave me alone' don't you understand?" Faith grumbles once I've caught up with her again. She doesn't look at me, her eyes still darting around like mad searchlights. No, scratch that! Don't use the word mad here! No sense in tempting fate. Or Faith.  
  
"I want to find Buffy as well," I state. "And if I can keep an eye on you in the process, much the better."  
  
Faith says nothing to that and we walk in silence for a while. The campus is still a mess, firemen and rescue workers everywhere. A few fires are still burning, smoke plumes rising into the sky. The area directly around Lowell House - or what was Lowell House until last night - is abuzz with Sunnydale's finest.  
  
Lots of students around, too. Everyone taking a long look at the large hole in the ground. Don't they have anything better to do? Like, I don't know, get a job? Don't act so high and mighty towards us poor non-college buggers? Stop it, Xander! No sense in broadcasting your issues right now. This is about Buffy. We have to find Buffy.  
  
"Why did you do it, Faith?" It takes a moment to realize that I am the one asking that question.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Why did you betray us? Scratch that! I can understand your not much caring about the rest of us, but why betray Buffy? She tried to be your friend when I would have just told her not to waste her time. Why did you betray her?"  
  
I'm waiting for another explosion, but it doesn't come. Faith looks at me for a long moment, then starts looking around again.  
  
"I didn't mean to."  
  
"Try again!"  
  
"No, I ... I went to the Mayor with a glorious plan in my head. I would infiltrate his operations, learn all I could about him, learn enough to stop him. I figured if I did that it would make things good again. Wipe out that ... that mistake I made."  
  
Killing that guy in the alley, you mean? Thankfully I've got enough brains left not to speak that one out loud.  
  
"But then ... he ... he cared. He cared for me. He was nice to me, made me ... made me feel loved for the first time. I ... no one ever loved me before. I didn't even know what that was."  
  
A scathing remark is on my lips, but I bite it back. Who says I have no self-control?  
  
"And I wondered ... wondered why I should betray this man who loved me just to get back into the good graces of some people who never wanted me to begin with."  
  
"So you started doing his dirty work because he bought you ice-cream?" Okay, no self-control here. Sue me. Just don't beat me into a bloody pulp!  
  
She opens her mouth to say something, probably something very unpleasant or - more confusing - something meaningful, when she suddenly tenses. All movement ceases and I'm uncomfortably reminded of a big jungle cat getting ready to pounce on someone.  
  
As long as it's not me ...  
  
Faith moves, darting toward one of the bushes. She's almost out of sight by the time I start moving as well, a lot of voices again telling me that I'm using up my amount of fool's luck at a very rapid rate.  
  
There is a yell up ahead, deeper inside the bushes, along with some smoking debris and a few scattered pieces of charred tree. We're pretty close to the explosion site and it seems Faith has found trouble. Why doesn't that surprise me, really? There is the unmistakable sound of one person hitting another. Hard.  
  
I explode out into a small clearing and almost collide with Faith, who stumbles back against me. She is bleeding from the mouth and it looks like she'll sport one hell of a shiner tomorrow. Who could ...  
  
My thoughts freeze as I see the other person in the clearing. It actually takes me a moment to recognize her. I've never seen her like this before, of course. Filthy, looking like she's been through one hell of a meat grinder, and naked. Did I mention naked? Naked Buffy? I don't whether to faint or scream for joy.  
  
Buffy stands, no, crouches in the clearing, looking at us with wild eyes. Her hair hangs in dirty strands all over her face and I don't think she knows who we are. Her fingers are curled into claws, she is panting.  
  
Did I mention she's naked?  
  
"Buffy," I speak to her, slowly making a step toward her. Faith stays back a step, apparently more cautious after getting one in the face. Buffy's eyes are following me, but every now and then they're darting around madly, as if she's looking for something close by.  
  
"Buffy, it's me! Xander!" Now this is an uncomfortable reminder of Buffy's little beer episode a few weeks back. Hope it fades just as quickly. Even now, though, I can't help checking her out ... for injuries, yeah, only for injuries. She's dirty as hell, covered in soot and mud, but apart from that she seems to be okay.  
  
Except for that look in her eyes. She looks scared, lost, and extremely likely to strike out at anyone who gets too close to her.  
  
How did I survive so long being this stupid?  
  
"Buffy, everything's fine," I tell her, taking another step closer. She flinches back from me like a wounded animal.  
  
"Calm down! I'm here to help you!"  
  
Another step. This time she doesn't flinch. Her eyes become a little more steady and she is really looking at me.  
  
"Xa-Xander?" I can barely hear the word and it sounds a lot more like a question than anything else.  
  
"Yeah, Xander! That's me! Can I come closer, Buffy?"  
  
She hesitates, wild eyes boring into me, then they dart past me and fix on Faith.  
  
"I ... I know you," Buffy says.  
  
I don't think this is good.  
  
Something leaps past me in the span of an eyeblink and by the time I manage to turn around Buffy is all over Faith, raining punches down on her. Faith raises her arms to protect her face, but she isn't striking back.  
  
"You hurt me," Buffy yells. "Hurt Angel! Hurt me!"  
  
Even while I try to figure out what I can do about one psychotic Slayer being pummeled by a hopefully just temporarily psychotic Slayer, Faith suddenly slithers out from underneath Buffy and takes a few steps back, trying to gain some distance. Buffy is on her again in a hot second.  
  
Buffy isn't fighting like I've seen her before. No technique, no fancy moves. She's a wild animal, lashing out in panic. Not Faith. When Buffy leaps at her Faith just steps to the side and comes round behind her, her arms going around Buffy's throat. Clenching down, catching her in a sleeper hold that would make TV Wrestling proud. Buffy would never have gotten caught this easily under normal circumstances.  
  
Buffy is fighting like crazy, trying everything to get her hands on Faith, but the other Slayer just buries her face in Buffy's long hair to protect it and holds on. Buffy's fingernails leave long, bleeding scratches on her forearms, yet Faith doesn't let go.  
  
It takes a long time to choke someone into unconsciousness in real life. Always works within a minute or so on TV. I'm standing there, frozen, while Faith slowly chokes Buffy to the ground, my friend's movements growing sluggish, her animal yells becoming small and helpless sounds. For a moment I wonder if I should intervene, help Buffy fight Faith, but somehow that doesn't strike me as the best of ideas right now.  
  
Finally Faith lets go and Buffy slumps to the ground, a dirty and naked bundle of flesh. Somehow the naked thing has ceased to be of importance right now. I'm by her side in an instant, not caring about what Faith might do or anything else. I cradle the body of my friend in my arms and try to think of something to do.  
  
"I'll guess I'll call the others?" Faith says, more a question than a statement. She is breathing hard, the short fight having tired her out after months of inactivity. I just nod, feeling tears in my eyes as I hold Buffy close. We'll fix this, you'll see. You're the Slayer, Buffy. The Slaymaster General, nothing can keep you down. We'll fix this, I promise you.  
  
I'm so glad you're alive.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	6. Part 6: Buffy

Part 6: Buffy  
  
#  
  
I remember fire. Surrounding me like a blanket, flames caressing me like a lover. Like Angel. No, Angel left me. He's gone. I'm alone. Only fire, fire looking to devour me. So much fire. I can still feel it on my skin, so much pain. I hear myself screaming.  
  
"Buffy?" A voice. Not my own, not my voice screaming. Another voice.  
  
Angel?  
  
"Buffy, can you hear me?" Again that voice. Wonderful, silky, my dark lover's touch. Angel? How can he be here? This has to be a dream. Nothing but a dream.  
  
I remember the rain on my face as I escaped from the fire. Cold ground, darkness welcoming me in its embrace. I am still there, that has to be it. This is but a dream, I'm longing for the arms of him who left me. He's not here. He doesn't want me anymore. Just a dream.  
  
Not a dream, dummy, someone whispers into my ears. Who is that?  
  
"Buffy!" The other voice again. Angel?  
  
Angel, the whispers agree. Where do they come from?  
  
More voices. I know some of them, I think. Xander? Giles? Everything is so blurry. Someone is arguing. Spike? What is Spike doing here?  
  
He is harmless, the whispers tell me. The behavior modification chip in his head won't let him hurt anyone. Poor sucker.  
  
This is getting too strange for me. Angel's voice. Someone whispering to me. What is going on here? Where did the flames go? I remember the explosions, the pain. Why am I still alive after so much pain?  
  
"Buffy!"  
  
My eyes snap open of their own volition and I see his face right in front of me. His face. He's here. It's not a dream.  
  
Angel!  
  
"She's awake, I think," Angel says to someone I can not see.  
  
"Angel?" I have to know. Is this just a dream after all? Is he really here?  
  
He is here! The whispers again. Who is whispering to me?  
  
"I am here, Buffy," he says, his voice so wonderfully smooth and soothing. Did I forget how good his voice sounded? It's been just a few weeks since I saw him, hasn't it? In Los Angeles? Thanksgiving? Just a few minutes, but I saw him.  
  
Not just a few minutes!  
  
"How are you feeling Buffy?" Another voice, making me forget the whispers. Giles? He leans over me, looking at me, his aged eyes so full of caring and worry.  
  
I finally manage to take a look around. I'm in Giles' apartment, his bedroom. Lying in Giles' bed, the covers tugged up to my chin. Angel is there, sitting right next to the bed. He's holding my hand in his, his wonderfully cool flesh pressed against mine. Giles is there as well, a steaming cup of tea in his hand. Voices from outside. Xander? Willow? Spike?  
  
"What happened?" I ask them, my voice sounding so hollow and weak. Why can't I remember anything except the flames? What did they do to me?  
  
"Buffy!" Willow comes into the room, rushing to the side of the bed across from Angel, clutching my other hand. "Are you all right?"  
  
I am confused. Am I all right? I have no idea. Feel like my brains been wrapped up in cotton.  
  
"What happened?" I ask them again. I need to know.  
  
"We, we hoped you could tell us that, Buffy," Giles says. I can't look at him. My eyes are riveted to Angel, who is looking at me with that special look he always had. Like I'm the only thing in the world to him. Parker never looked at me like that. And Riley ... Riley?  
  
"Willow told us you were in Lowell House," Giles continues, "wanting to meet your, ah, your friend Riley. Then Lowell House exploded and, well, that is pretty much all we know."  
  
Flames. So many flames. Riley's face. He was there, wasn't he?  
  
Agent Riley Finn. Codename Lilac One, if you can believe it. Who is whispering here? Lilac One? What kind of name is that anyway?  
  
Angel still looks at me. I think he flinched when Giles mentioned Riley, said he was my friend. Does that mean that Angel still ... does he?  
  
"Do you remember anything of what happened in Lowell House, Buffy?" Giles inquires.  
  
I try to remember. So many jumbled images. Fire, lots of fire. Something exploded. Pain, electricity running through me. Riley, yes. He ... did he do that? Why is my head hurting so much?  
  
After effects of the joining process are to be expected, I guess.  
  
"What joining process?" I mumble, only then realizing that I spoke out loud.  
  
"Buffy?" Angel asks, worry shining in his dark orbs.  
  
"I ... I remember talking to Riley. He ... he is one of those army guys."  
  
"Riley?" Willow asks, disbelief in her voice. "He is one of them?"  
  
"Yes, I ... I ran across him when we fought the Gentlemen. He, he helped me. I think." So much confusion, why can't I keep my memories straight? "He was wearing a uniform and, and he had some kind of gun that shot electricity."  
  
Taser weapon, the whispers tell me. Used to immobilize hostile sub- terrestrials. That's their fancy name for Vampires and other demons.  
  
"Okay, who is whispering here all the time," I yell, immediately clutching my head when my own voice sets it ringing with pain again. God, why can't this pain stop?  
  
"Whispering?" Angel asks, his brow furrowing. I know that look. He's trying to spot the danger, sweeping the room with his super Vampire senses. Doesn't he hear this?  
  
I would really be surprised if he could, the whispers snicker.  
  
"Buffy?" Giles asks, looking even more worried. "How are you feeling? Maybe we should get a doctor after all."  
  
"No, no, it's okay. I guess ... just tired. God, my head hurts."  
  
"What happened with this ... Riley?" Angel asks, his voice carefully neutral.  
  
I guess he still does care, don't you think?  
  
Am I going mad?  
  
"Well, I ... we talked after we defeated the Gentlemen. He was, well, he was surprised of how much we already knew of his operation. I didn't mention Spike, of course. He wanted to know who I was, too. He had already figured out that I'm not your average college girl. So I ... I told him I'm the Slayer."  
  
"You did what?" Giles asks, his voice rising a bit. "Buffy, you know how essential it is that your identity as the Slayer ..."  
  
"Giles, it's okay," I calm him down. "He already knew something was going on. And anyway, he didn't have a clue about what the Slayer is. Just gave me a blank look."  
  
That's what you think, the whispers intervene again. I have to ignore this. Just delusions, aftereffects from the pain. If I ignore them they'll go away. I hope.  
  
"That was ... yesterday? What day is it anyway?"  
  
"It's Wednesday, Buffy," Angel says. "The explosion was yesterday evening."  
  
Wednesday? "I ... well, our talk was on Sunday. Riley then called me Tuesday morning, saying he wanted to talk again. I went to Lowell House and then ..."  
  
Fire. Pain. So much pain.  
  
"Then?" Giles asks.  
  
My head seems to be on fire. There is so much pain. I think I cried out or something, because suddenly Angel's cool arms are around me, holding me tightly. My face is touching his chest, I can feel his cold flesh beneath the shirt he is wearing.  
  
"Maybe we should leave her some time to recover." Giles says, his voice growing more distant.  
  
"I will stay here." Angel says. He said he would stay. "Try to find out some more about this operation. If this ... Riley is part of it, maybe you can find something out by looking up his files, Willow."  
  
"I'll do my best. Buffy? Just, just rest, okay? We'll figure this out, I promise."  
  
I can hear their footsteps receding into the distance and suddenly it's just Angel and me, alone. In a bedroom.  
  
"Just rest, Buffy," Angel says, slowly letting go of me, lowering me back to the bed.  
  
"Stay with me?" I ask him, my voice sounding so incredibly weak and vulnerable. What happened to me? What did this to me?  
  
"As long as you need me." He gives me one of his patented half-smiles that makes my insides melt into a puddle of goo.  
  
Don't you just wish we had a kitchen table around here somewhere? the whispers ask me.  
  
"Just shut up," I whisper back even as sleep claims me, feeling safe in knowing that he's close.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	7. Part 7: Riley

Part 7: Riley Tuesday Morning  
  
#  
  
My head is still spinning with everything I have learned these last two days. On Saturday night I found myself fighting creatures right out of a fairy tale, creatures who had stolen the voices of everyone here in Sunnydale in order to get seven hearts for whatever purpose. I knew a lot of strange things were going on in this deceptively quiet little town, but this ...  
  
Buffy. Buffy Summers. College girl. Beautiful blonde girl, a smile that makes my heart melt. I think I fell for her the moment I first saw her, the sun shining down on her, the rays sparkling in her hair, bringing out the colors in the summer dress she wore. God, she was so beautiful.  
  
All that no longer matters, though. Not after what I learned on Sunday morning. Buffy Summers, this frail little girl, is the Slayer. Slayer, the, as she said. She who hangs out in cemeteries. The chosen one.  
  
The one the Initiative has been looking for ever since we came here.  
  
I remember how Walsh gave us the lowdown. The Slayer. A supernatural warrior, a human imbued with demon strength, all the powers of a Vampire, but without the weaknesses. Fighting to protect humanity from the demons, having done so for centuries.  
  
Walsh wants her. The government wants her. Though the public is not aware of it, the world is filled with creatures science can not explain. Humanity is not the top of the food chain, nowhere close. We rule the world, but only because there are so many of us. We have to keep it that way. Protect the civilians from the things that go bump in the night.  
  
For that we need the Slayer.  
  
It sounded a lot better and convincing when the Slayer was just an abstract. No more real than all the different demon species we read up about. Not a human being, certainly not. A supernatural entity, no more human than a Vampire. Its sole purpose is the protection of us humans, so using it to do just that can't be a bad thing, right?  
  
The Slayer is a girl, though. A beautiful blonde girl with a smile to die for.  
  
I did my duty, though. I reported to Walsh that I found the Slayer. That she had been under our noses all this time, actually. Walsh didn't believe me at first when I told her that one of her students in psych class was the Slayer. I convinced her, though.  
  
Why in hell did I have to convince her?  
  
Walsh wanted the Slayer captured and once again I did my duty. Riley Finn, good little soldier, always doing what he is told. Called her, told her we needed to talk, asked her if she could come over to Lowell House.  
  
We waited for her. Six Initiative soldiers armed with taser guns. She walked in the door, not suspecting a thing. After all her good friend Riley Finn had called her over for a talk. In bright daylight. What possible danger could lurk?  
  
The first taser blast brought her to her knees. The rucksack she used to carry all her student stuff fell from her hands, spilling its contents out on the floor. Her body was shaking from the electric burst, but her eyes never moved. They only looked at me, screaming a silent question at me.  
  
Why? Why did I do this?  
  
She actually got up after that first blast. Got back to her feet, though unsteadily, and tried to fight. It took two more taser blasts to finally bring her down. Her beautiful form slipped to the floor and didn't move anymore.  
  
Her eyes closed and the accusing scream was silenced.  
  
"Snap out of it, Riley!"  
  
Graham's voice brings me back to the present. Right. We have to watch this. Watch the glorious finale of the 314 project. Walsh's ticket to immortality, I guess. Maybe they'll name schools after her or something. I watch from the railing as they prepare everything down in the pit.  
  
Buffy is there.  
  
She has not regained consciousness yet and I can't help but be thankful for that. No doubt they pumped her full of drugs to keep her from making trouble. Can't have this girl who protects the innocent from the monsters mess up this important experiment, can we? Bile rises in my throat.  
  
Walsh's love child stands close to where they have strapped Buffy to an operating table. Every time I see it a shiver runs down my spine. It's codenamed Adam One and, if everything goes as Walsh planned it, it will soon turn into the most powerful warrior against the monsters this world has ever seen.  
  
By then the Slayer will be dead, of course. Buffy will be dead.  
  
Adam One. I paid attention at all the briefings they gave us, but of course they told us grunts only the barest details. Adam One. Created from something called Promethian Metal, a fusion of modern metallurgy and ancient magic. Indestructible. No weapon, technological or magical, will be able to harm it. The ultimate soldier.  
  
Maybe I've watched Terminator once too often, but this thing gives me the creeps. Even now, when it's still deactivated.  
  
Seven feet of crimson steel, featureless, the images of the scientists surrounding it playing across its chrome surface. It is shaped like a man, or maybe the parody of a man. No face, no definition. Just two arms, two legs, a smooth head, and a smooth torso.  
  
I'm scared of this thing.  
  
"Guess the big guy's gonna put us out of business, eh?" Forrest says at my side. "Once he gets activated the creepy crawlies better run."  
  
I say nothing, my eyes moving back to Buffy's unconscious form. Some scientists are checking her over once again, the steel contraption they have fastened to her skull. She is the final ingredient. She will make Walsh's super soldier perfect. The supernatural warriror dies, but a more powerful one will take its place. A fair trade, right?  
  
Buffy will be dead.  
  
"Activate the core tap," Walsh orders from where she observes the preparations.  
  
The machines around us start humming as power is pumped into them. A crimson glare fills the laboratory pit and all the hairs on my body stand up, shivers running down my spine. No normal generator could provide the power necessary for something like this. I know where this power comes from and it does not help me sleep at night.  
  
"Power levels optimal," someone tells Walsh.  
  
"Begin phase one!"  
  
Switches are thrown, people move to their positions. A young woman stands directly beside Buffy, cracking her knuckles in preparation. I have been briefed on her as well. A witch. For this we need both science and magic, Walsh said, so the Initiative brought in a witch, government-approved and all.  
  
I hate this.  
  
The witch begins to chant, even as the crimson glow begins to surround Adam One. The lights play across its chrome surface and I have to fight the urge to avert my eyes. I have to watch this. If nothing else, I have to watch this.  
  
A scream pierces the hushed silence of the lab and I see that Buffy has come awake. There is crimson light surrounding her body and she screams. God, why is she screaming like this? They said she wouldn't be in pain. She is supposed to be unconscious through it all. They said it was for the greater good. Why is she in so much pain?  
  
I can't look anymore. I am sorry, Buffy, but I can't look. I turn and walk away, all I can do to keep myself from running. Forrest makes some kind of comment, but I don't hear him above the screaming.  
  
When I'm halfway to the exit the screaming abruptly stops.  
  
"Begin phase two," I hear Walsh's voice.  
  
"I am sorry, Buffy," I whisper under my breath. This had to be done. For the greater good. To make the world a safer place. Or something. Maybe if I tell myself that often enough I can start to believe it.  
  
I'm almost at the elevator, needing to get away from this place, when the ground starts to shake.  
  
"We're having a problem with the core tap," someone yells over the increasing din.  
  
"Stabilize," Walsh screams.  
  
The metal stairway beneath me creaks and sways, it's all I can do to hold on. Cracks appear in the walls and the crimson glare in the laboratory pit intensifies.  
  
"Shut down! Go to emergency shutdown!"  
  
The stairway suddenly breaks away beneath me. Someone is starting to scream in pain, but I can't figure out who. The voice doesn't even sound human.  
  
Something explodes in front of me when I hit the ground and darkness embraces me.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	8. Part 8: Angel

Part 8: Angel  
  
#  
  
Buffy slept for another few hours and then told us everything she remembers. I listened to her tale and had to keep myself from clenching my fists in rage.  
  
If Riley Finn survived the explosion in that underground lab he better be miles away from here by now. If I ever get my hands on him ...  
  
"This doesn't make sense," Giles murmurs under his breath.  
  
"What?" I ask him, throwing a glance upstairs, where Buffy has fallen asleep again.  
  
"What, what she told us," he says. "For one thing she told us that she remembers being on fire."  
  
I could hear the pain in her voice. So much pain. I had to keep myself from closing her in my arms again, doing whatever it takes to make the pain go away.  
  
"So?" Willow asks.  
  
"If she was on fire, she, she should be burned. Not even Slayer healing could heal burns like those she described in the space of a day. She should be burned all over."  
  
I almost growl at him, but I know he doesn't mean it like that. He is as relieved as I am that she is back and unhurt. I turn my head to look at Faith, who hasn't moved from her seat in the corner of the living room since she and Xander returned with Buffy.  
  
"Another thing," Giles continues, "is the fact that she got out at all. This, this entire installation is one huge hole in the ground now. As far as we can tell no one got out alive, yet she isn't even scratched."  
  
"You make that sound like a bad thing," Willow complains. "We should be glad she isn't hurt, not ..."  
  
"Willow, it's all right," I try to calm her. "We have to find out what happened and I have to admit, Buffy's recollection might not be the most reliable source of information we have right now."  
  
"Did you and Spike find anything?" Giles asks me.  
  
I shake my head. Spike led me through the sewers toward the place he remembers coming out through. We spent hours looking for a way in, but a lot of the tunnels have collapsed, some have even melted.  
  
"It was a mess down there, that's for sure," Spike says. "Army boys blew themselves up real good."  
  
He doesn't sound too sad about it.  
  
"Well, then I guess no one is left to take that chip out of your head again," Xander remarks. I have to admit, I'm kind of glad not to be the target of his animosity for once. Spike fumes, but says nothing.  
  
"Any more on this Finn character?" I ask Willow, who has been working the computer almost nonstop since Buffy turned up again.  
  
"Nothing helpful. According to his files at university he is from Iowa, corn-fed farm boy through and through. No mention of military service or anything."  
  
"It might not even be his real name," Giles says. "Just some kind of cover identity."  
  
"Our only hope to find out more is to find some way to get inside the installation." I look at the others. "After nightfall we can try and find a way in from above. If the explosion left anything intact, that is."  
  
Spike stays quiet. He will come along, I know, both because he hopes to find something that will help him with the chip and because he knows I will stake him the moment he steps out of line. Neutered like he is he can't even defend himself, so he will obey. For the moment.  
  
I look at Faith again. Xander told us what happened when Buffy attacked her. Buffy doesn't seem to remember that at all. Anyway, Faith could have used the opportunity to kill Buffy. She didn't, so I guess we can trust her. For the moment.  
  
"Sunset is in two hours," Giles says, rising from the couch. "We should maybe rest a bit until then."  
  
Willow and Xander leave, promising to be back in two hours. Spike squats down in front of the TV and turns on some show. Faith just remains sitting in the corner, her eyes never wavering from the door to the bedroom upstairs, where Buffy is resting.  
  
I join Giles in the kitchen, where he has some blood prepared.  
  
"I am worried, Angel," Giles says quietly. "About Buffy. Did she seem ... confused to you?"  
  
"You mean the fact that she seemed to be talking to someone else beside of us?"  
  
Giles nods. "She complained about someone whispering to her. She is also talking in her sleep, a conversation with someone. Now, I hope that it is just the stress from almost dying in that explosion, but ..."  
  
"But we have no way of knowing what those military people did to her, I agree. We need to keep a constant eye on her."  
  
Giles nods again, sipping from his tea cup.  
  
"I am glad you are here, Angel," he says after a minute of silence. "Ever since you left Buffy has been ... different."  
  
"Different?"  
  
"Not on the outside, no. But I'm afraid Buffy is not a very good actress. I fear she is just pretending to be happy. Inside she is still hurting."  
  
I sigh. "It was painful for both of us, but there was no alternative. We can't have a future together, Giles, you know that."  
  
"I do, yes. I just fear that Buffy is not dealing well with that. She is getting ... reckless. Telling a virtual stranger about her being the Slayer is just a small part of it. I'm worried."  
  
"Are you worried that she might be going ..."  
  
I don't say the word, but Giles knows what I mean. I wait for him to dispute me, but he doesn't.  
  
"We'll just have to keep a close eye on her," Giles says, sipping his tea again.  
  
I gulp down the warmed blood and try to quench the stark worry spreading in my stomach.  
  
#  
  
It's five minutes to sunset and everyone is ready to go looking for answers. I just pray we can find some. As I expected Faith got up and joined us without another word. She barely reacted earlier, when I thanked her for bringing Buffy back. It's like she is trying to disappear, trying to avoid everyone's gaze, until she feels she has managed to make some amends.  
  
I know the feeling.  
  
We are about to go out when Buffy comes down the stairs.  
  
"I'm coming with you," she announces to everyone. She is already dressed and looks almost healthy. Too healthy.  
  
"Buffy, we ...," Giles begins.  
  
"You're going into that underground lab," she says, not a question. "I'm coming with you."  
  
I walk toward her. "Buffy, are you sure you are up to this?"  
  
"I need to know what happened to me, Angel," she says with a pleading look on her face. "They did something to me, I know it. I need to know what is going on inside me. Why I keep hearing ... I just need to know."  
  
I share a worried glance with Giles, but finally nod. Suddenly Buffy looks past me at Faith.  
  
"Hi, B," Faith says after a moment of icy silence.  
  
"Hello, Faith," Buffy answers, her voice very neutral.  
  
"She helped us," Xander remarks. "Sort of."  
  
Buffy cocks her head to one side, as if listening to something. Then she looks back at Faith.  
  
"I attacked you," she whispers, as if only just now remembering. "And you ..."  
  
"Sorry about that." Faith looks down, her voice very small. "I ... I thought it was best for you to ..."  
  
"I understand," Buffy cuts her off. "I guess I wasn't quite myself then. Thank you."  
  
I am not sure what Buffy is thinking right now. Her face has turned into a mask where, but seconds earlier, I could read the desperation inside of her like words on the page of a book. There is a lot of unresolved anger between the two Slayers. Faith seems eager to make up for what she did. I don't know whether Buffy is ready to give her a chance. Especially now.  
  
"Let's go, people," she says, looking determined.  
  
I nod, giving Giles a silent promise not to take my eyes off her. We load up with weapons, though I doubt we will need them. I don't think there is anything left alive down there. There might not be anything left period.  
  
I just hope we find some answers.  
  
"Just shut up," Buffy mumbles to herself and I feel uneasy.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	9. Part 9: Faith

Part 9: Faith  
  
#  
  
Angel and that Spike guy finally found a way to get inside this ... whatever it is. For a moment there I thought we would all die as we scrambled through that halfway collapsed tunnel with the ceiling just inches above our heads and I'm quite sure it trembled. I saw it trembling.  
  
B is walking ahead of me and I can't help but keep a bit of a distance. There is something ... I don't know. Something is off about her. Back when, when everything was still good between us, I could always feel her. Slayer sense to Slayer sense or something. I knew when she was close and sometimes I could even tell what she was thinking.  
  
Now that connection is dead. Or maybe not dead, but off. All I get from her is a chill and some jumbled images. Like shadows. I don't know, maybe it's because of the coma. Or because B almost died in that explosion. Or maybe because I fucked up everything by trying to steal her boyfriend and kill her friends. Yeah, I guess that's it.  
  
Something has changed. Not only with B, but with me. Before ... before everything happened I always felt so ... angry. I felt like the world owed me something. A better life maybe. It was supposed to treat me like a queen for being the Slayer, I guess. Looking back now I simply can't understand what I was thinking. Why did I do all that? Just because some old demon- worshipping guy made like the loving father I never had and I bought it?  
  
I feel different now. Ever since I had that dream that woke me up, I feel different.  
  
I feel whole for the first time in my life.  
  
"We are getting close." Spike says. He was in my dream and I can't figure out why. I never met the guy before, so why did I go all prophetic dreamy with him? I never had these prophetic things before, why do they start now?  
  
We arrive at what seems to have been some kind of intersection in a former life and Spike looks at the three possible ways we can go, none of them looking very inviting. Whatever these corridors once looked like, now they are melted into so much slag and it's a miracle the entire thing didn't collapse in on itself.  
  
Of course it might still do that.  
  
"There ... there should be some kind of large central chamber around here somewhere," Spike says, sounding uncertain. "That's where they did all the experiments and stuff."  
  
"The central laboratory pit didn't survive the cave-in," B adds matter-of- factly. "We need to go that way." She points at a corridor.  
  
Everyone is staring at her, including myself.  
  
"What?" she asks.  
  
"Buffy, I thought you didn't remember anything from down here," Angel says softly. He always speaks that way when he speaks to her. His voice is like a velvet feather. Fuck, listen to me! It sounds as if I still have the hots for him.  
  
Maybe I do.  
  
"I don't remember," B whispers, sounding ... scared? "I just ... I know. I can't explain it, but I know."  
  
Angel and Giles, who insisted on accompanying us, are exchanging more of those worried glance things. Can't really blame them right now. B is in a bad way. On the way here she constantly murmured under her breath, repeatedly telling someone or something to shut up. There is a strange kind of look in her eyes sometimes, as if someone else is looking out from there. Someone not B.  
  
"Okay, then let's go that way," Spike says more or less merrily. He is clearly not very happy about being here. Giles gave me the short version of Spike 101. Vicious Vampire, Angel's Childe, got caught by these same military types that messed up B, got a chip in his head that prevents him from harming anyone. Tough shit for a blood-sucking creature of the night, I guess. Could care less, but not much.  
  
Spike certainly has no incentive to help B and her friends. Except for the fact that Angel looks like he will kill him the moment he steps out of line. Giles hinted that something bad happened between these two just very recently and with Spike not able to fight back ... I wouldn't want to piss off the big A, either.  
  
We have walked through the corridor Buffy indicated for five minutes or so when Giles coughs, looking at the map he carries with him.  
  
"Ah, Buffy. I fear we are going the wrong way."  
  
"No, we're not," B says with absolute certainty in her voice.  
  
"But we are already outside the college grounds and heading further away with every step. The military base ..."  
  
"There isn't much left of the base," B interrupts him. "But something more important is going on down there." She motions at something on the wall.  
  
Only now do I see a huge cable or something trailing along the side of the corridor we walk through. We must be some way away from the source of that explosion already because most of the damage done here is superficial. I can see the markings on the cable surface.  
  
"Runes?" I wonder out loud.  
  
Giles leans down, holding his flashlight closer to inspect the cable.  
  
"It seems that way," he says. "I know some of these symbols. Black magic, used for the channeling of, of demonic forces."  
  
"What?" Spike yells. "You're telling me these army boys also messed with magic? This thing I have in my head could be cursed in some way besides keeping me from eating?"  
  
""Shut up, Spike," Angel growls, touching the cable with his hand. "There is some kind of power still running through this. It feels ... weird. Familiar somehow."  
  
B doesn't look at the cable, she just stares ahead into the dark corridor. I can see her lips move, she is talking to someone again. What is going on inside her head?  
  
"No," she whispers suddenly.  
  
"What?" Angel rises to his feet.  
  
"Giles, where does this tunnel lead?" She moves closer to her Watcher.  
  
"Well, if it just goes on in a straight line it will lead us right to ... dear Lord."  
  
Suddenly I have a flashback to my dream. Angel singing something about the end of the world and how I wanted to be part of it. I look at the map Giles is holding out, his finger having trailed the line of this corridor further along until it came to rest on a spot I am familiar with.  
  
Sunnydale High School.  
  
Angel crouches beside the cable again, resting his hand against it. For a moment he closes his eyes, like he's listening to something. A second later he surges to his feet, growling.  
  
"The Hellmouth," he snarls. "Those idiots are channeling the energies of the Hellmouth!"  
  
Without another word we take off running down the corridor. Somewhere inside my head Angel is singing about everything being on fire in the city that never sleeps.  
  
"You sure about this?" B is asking someone I can't see.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	10. Part 10: Buffy

Part 10: Buffy  
  
#  
  
"Talk to me," I tell whoever it is inside my head.  
  
About time you started paying attention to me, girlfriend!  
  
I have heard this voice in my head from the moment I woke up after the explosion. At first it was just a whispering somewhere in the back of my head, like background noise. I thought I had a headache and it was just the buzzing.  
  
Then the voice started getting clearer, no longer a noise, but words. Sentences. A voice talking to me, no matter how hard I try to ignore it.  
  
Okay, so either I'm mad - and I'm speaking padded-wall-type mad here - or there really is someone in my head. Right now I'm actually leaning toward the second alternative, though I'm not sure it's the one I'd prefer.  
  
We are standing in a cavern below what once was Sunnydale High School. I spent three years of my childhood up there, right above a nexus of mystical energy. It nearly opened twice and both times the world came pretty close to ending. I died the first time I came down here, drowned, and was brought back just in time to save the world for what proved to be just the first time.  
  
This is different somehow.  
  
"Amazing," Giles says by my side. Angel just stares, his face unreadable as always. Faith is making a joke, I think. Or maybe the attempt at a joke, I'm not really listening. Too busy staring myself.  
  
This was once a church. Buried in a big quake sometime in the 30s, along with a Vampire called the Master. He remained stuck down here, bound to the Hellmouth, until the day he killed me and got free. Then I killed him. Complicated, I know.  
  
The church is gone. In its place is something else.  
  
It's called a pan-dimensional energy converter, my mystery voice says. Maybe we should call it PaDEC for short, what do you think?  
  
Pan-dimensional ... whatever. It fills the cavern to capacity. Someone did some excavating here, that much is for sure. It wasn't this big a place the last time I came to visit. Now it's big, as in very big. Big enough to house the technological monstrosity I'm looking at.  
  
"It ... it seems to be some kind of generator," Giles says, carefully moving closer.  
  
"Pan-dimensional energy converter," I say without wanting to. Everyone is looking at me again. That weird look that people get when you say something strange and they try to figure out whether you are mad or they just didn't pay enough attention.  
  
Now I know how Anya must feel all the time.  
  
Angel comes over and gives me a look. Angel-look, I guess. The one that says this is no time for jokes or evasions.  
  
"Buffy! How do you know all this?"  
  
I swallow, trying to think of a way to explain something I don't understand myself.  
  
Just tell them about me already, the voice says. And stop thinking about me as 'The Voice', okay? Even though it does sound kinda cool. If you think of it with capitals, that is.  
  
"There is ... I am hearing a voice inside my head," I tell the others. "Have heard it ever since I woke up. At first I thought I was going mad, but now..."  
  
"Now?" Giles asks, inquiring further.  
  
"It ... it led me here. Told me which corridor to choose. It also told me that a military outfit called the Initiative built this place. And this," I gesture toward the techno thing, "is where they got their power from."  
  
Everyone is looking at the thing again. Pan-dimensional energy converter. Guess it would make sense to some super-scientist guys. I, for my part, ...  
  
It siphons the energies emanating from the various dimensions that are converging in this place. Some of the lower demonic planes give off energy like a nuclear reactor on crack. Only thing they have to do is plant this thing right on top and it sucks up the energy like nobody's business.  
  
Super-scientist guy that talks like ... well, like me. I'm really getting tired of this.  
  
"Who the hell are you?"  
  
Took you long enough to ask that question. I would love to answer it, but it's kind of a long story and if you would be so kind as to swivel your head about ten degrees to the left you will see that we have more immediate problems.  
  
Reluctantly I do as my mystery voice asks. This converter thing is huge, big as a house, all shiny steel and glowing runes. Like something out of the Matrix, only with a touch of Alien, H.P. Lovecraft, and the Death Star thrown in for good measure. It's looks like a cancerous growth, actually, buried in the ground like some kind of techno-parasite.  
  
I can feel it humming with power.  
  
I have no idea how much ten degrees are, really, but suddenly my eyes lock in on something. A part of the machine is not looking all that together. It's looking wide open actually, like something exploded right beneath it. Girders, wiring, technological ... stuff, it's hanging out like innards from an open wound.  
  
Something red and very shiny is leaking out from it.  
  
"Guys, will you look at that!" I direct everyone's attention to the broken spot.  
  
Angel stays hovering at my side, as does Faith. Spike has retreated to a corner, looking pissed at being here. Or maybe at being forced to help us. Who knows? Giles, though, he walks toward this converter thing and takes a closer look.  
  
"It seems damaged. A-and that ... that energy leaking out, is that ..."  
  
"Demonic energy," Angel says, growling underneath his breath. "I am not sure exactly what it is, but ... my demon responds to it."  
  
Only the slightest faltering before he speaks about his demon. He truly has changed. When he was still living in Sunnydale he was always majorly uncomfortable when talking about that thing inside of him.  
  
Has his time away from me truly been good for him?  
  
Don't start the tortured love routine now, okay? This is starting to get annoying. Yeah, love you, too. Now can we start dealing with the important things?  
  
"What is that stuff?" I ask my know-it-all voice.  
  
Angel's got it right, of course. Scientist geeks built this thing, but they underestimated the kinds of power they would have to channel here. When they cranked it up all the way to power the 314 experiment ...  
  
"What experiment?" I ask her.  
  
... they blew a fuse, the voice continues as if it didn't hear me. Come to think of it, it doesn't sound like an 'it'. More like a she, actually. That's what caused the explosion, I'd wager. Walsh bit off a little more than she could chew.  
  
"Walsh? As in Maggy Walsh? My psych professor?"  
  
The others are staring at me again. I guess it has to sound rather strange, hearing but one side of this conversation. Hell, I'm hearing both sides and it's still strange. Lots.  
  
Walsh! As in Professor Margaret Walsh, biggest brain the government has. Or had. Biggest ego, too. Never did understand why someone like her doubled up as a psych TA. Must be something to that whole secret identity gig that I'm just not getting.  
  
My head is spinning. This is just too much. There is some kind of generator sitting on top of the Hellmouth, broken now, and my psych prof apparently built it. This is just too much.  
  
I haven't even gotten to the good parts yet.  
  
"Oh, don't let me keep you from telling," I reply. I'm getting sarcastic with someone who is talking in my head. Qualified for nuthouse yet?  
  
Getting there. But the good parts are actually that this thing is going to continue leaking demonic energy. The funny thing is that smart Maggy Walsh, by siphoning the energy from this thing, has actually opened it a bit. The converter has pried it open and now it is the only thing containing it. But, seeing as it's broke, it won't do the job much longer. And then, presto! The demonic equivalent of Tschernobyl. How does that sound for good parts?  
  
I'm too stumped to even think a good comeback line for that.  
  
"Guys, we have a problem," I tell the others.  
  
After relaying what my little voice said Giles is pale, Angel stoic, and Faith looks uncomprehending. Spike whistles some kind of merry tune.  
  
"We, we have to fix it," Giles says, looking very confident as he says it. Not.  
  
"Sure," Faith says. "We'll fix this super-science futurama thingie. No problem."  
  
"We have to do something." Angel turns to look at me again. "Buffy, that voice you are hearing, does it know how to repair this machine?"  
  
Sorry, it says. I should come up with some kind of name, I guess. Especially since it sounds awfully female. Maybe I should really start thinking of it as 'her'. I'm not a pan-dimensional plumber, you know? Not really.  
  
"No go," I tell the others.  
  
"Great," Faith says. "Now what?"  
  
Of course you could try hitting the button labeled 'Emergency Shutdown' on that control panel over there!  
  
Again, too stumped.  
  
  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	11. Part 11: Willow

Part 11: Willow  
  
#  
  
"So this ... voice, she is ... what, a computer?"  
  
I look at Buffy, sitting across from me on Giles' living room couch, and try to imagine what it must look like inside her head now.  
  
Confusing, that much is for sure.  
  
"Not exactly a computer, Xander," Buffy answers. "More like a ... I guess the term is artificial intelligence."  
  
She has relayed what her voice has told her. The voice she is calling 'Anne' now. Apparently she was supposed to go by the name 'Adam' at first, but seeing as she is now very much female, I guess the name wouldn't fit, so Buffy sort of christened her with her own middle name.  
  
Apparently Professor Walsh was building ... I still can't believe my psych professor is mixed up in this. She was always so . well, not nice, but . anyway, apparently she wanted to build some kind of ultimate warrior thing. Xander kinda hoped it was a reference to wrestling, but I'm afraid that's not it.  
  
"This thing was ... well, it was a robot, I guess," Buffy says. "Big mix-up of magic and technology, sort of the best of both worlds. Or maybe the worst. Anne was supposed to become its mind. But only after ... well, after she took mine."  
  
Walsh wanted the best mind for her super soldier, or so Anne says. So she figured she'd take the mind of the greatest supernatural warrior around as a template. She wanted to take Buffy and ... suck all the fighting instincts and stuff right out of her, feeding it into Anne.  
  
I still can't believe we're talking about Professor Walsh here.  
  
"The technology Walsh had at her disposal must be astounding," Giles muses. "To build something like this generator and an artificial intelligence that actually assimilates someone else's characteristics ..."  
  
"Yeah, she's a real Borg Queen." Xander remarks. "But I want to know what went wrong with the whole assimilation thing. I mean, obviously Buffy didn't get her mind sucked out. Which I'm glad about."  
  
"Glad to hear it." Buffy says with a smile on her lips, but it looks kinda fragile. "Anne figures that, when this pan-dimensional converter thing overloaded, there was a lot of demonic energy surging around. It caused the explosion and it also messed up Walsh's experiment in a big way."  
  
"So instead of your mind being transferred into this android," Giles muses, "the android's mind was transferred into you."  
  
Buffy nods.  
  
"I remember it, only I didn't really now what it was. There was this whole thing with two voices screaming inside my head, only one of them my own. And then there was this ... this feeling of someone coming awake. Someone who embraced me, sung to me."  
  
A smile plays across her lips for a moment.  
  
"Anne says that I pretty much imagined the singing part. Apparently that was the moment she used my mind as a blueprint for her own and, sort of, first became aware. To me it felt like someone was holding me."  
  
I shake my head. Buffy was never a normal girl, that is for sure. Heck, none of us are all that normal anymore. Me, a witch. Xander dating a 1000- year-old vengeance demon. Giles a Watcher, or ex-Watcher, so many others. Why should it seem strange that my best friend is not only the Slayer now, but has some kind of super-intelligent computer mind living inside her head. One that behaves like her, too.  
  
This is too strange.  
  
For the first time since we came back I look at Angel. He is just standing in a corner, watching. I don't know where Faith went, but since she helped out and seems genuinely repentant, I guess she's off the hook for the moment. Angel says we can probably trust her. Angel, who has done nothing but look at Buffy for the last hour or so.  
  
Not hard to tell he still loves her. As if there ever was any doubt.  
  
Giles clears his throat. "Does ... Anne have any clue what we can expect to happen now? I can't imagine that the government will leave something like this converter just lying around. And there might be a lot of things still intact in what is left of the Initiative base. Does she know what they will do? How much they know?"  
  
Buffy cocks her head to one side and I'm starting to recognize the gesture for what it is. Listening to someone only she can hear. Will she have Anne living inside her head for the rest of her life? Won't that get extremely irritating after a while? Always having someone inside with you who knows what you're thinking and makes off comments that only you can hear?  
  
Have to stop thinking now, I guess. Makes my head hurt.  
  
"Anne only has the information that Walsh chose to include in her ... well, her programming. Apparently Walsh played things pretty close to her chest. Eventually someone will notice that she isn't reporting in anymore, but Anne figures we may still have some time before that happens."  
  
"We should probably try to find out more," Angel speaks up for the first time. "Learn more about what exactly this Initiative was planning."  
  
"I agree," Giles nods. "We should also make another expedition down into that base, whatever is left of it. Maybe some data or equipment survived that will tell us more."  
  
Angel nods in turn and then looks at Buffy again.  
  
"I may have some contacts that can make some discreet inquiries into what the government knows. I'll speak to them when I get back to L.A."  
  
Buffy's face falls when he says that. I look away, having expected this. Of course Angel would come when he thought Buffy was in trouble, but that doesn't mean he'll stay. I hate him for how much he hurt Buffy by leaving her, but I can understand it. After all, nothing has changed for them. Curse and everything is still there.  
  
I wish there was something I could do about that.  
  
Buffy and Angel go outside to talk. I don't want to imagine what's going on inside Buffy right now. After what happened with Parker and now with Riley I think she might be getting desperate. Her first love left her for her own good, that swine Parker just used her for a fun night, and Riley wanted to suck her mind out to use it in an android.  
  
And I thought I had relationship troubles.  
  
I can see them talking outside the door, Buffy desperately trying to keep herself from crying. I would smack Angel for doing that to her, but it wouldn't help. I know he would want to stay and be with her if only he could.  
  
Maybe I can talk to Tara about this. Maybe with two witches instead of one ... I'll have to look into this.  
  
"I want you to keep a close eye on her, Willow," Giles says suddenly, startling me.  
  
"What?"  
  
"We don't know what else the Initiative might have done to her. Or what this 'Anne' might be doing to her even now. Just keep a close eye on her, okay?"  
  
A part of me is furious that Giles wants me to spy on my best friend, but he's right, I guess. We averted an apocalypse by hitting a button labeled 'Emergency Shutdown'. I guess that was much too easy.  
  
This isn't over. I'm sure of it.  
  
#  
  
Epilogue:  
  
"Is this confirmed?" Quentin Travers asks.  
  
"Yes," the female Watcher in front of his desk says.  
  
"Which of them?"  
  
"We don't know yet. We won't until one of us goes to investigate."  
  
Travers nods, unhappy with this new development. Since Buffy Summers turned her back on the Council many plans have been made. Some call for assassinating the current Slayer, one of them at least, in order to have a new Slayer called. One that will be loyal to the Council again.  
  
With the unique situation of having two Slayers at the same time, though, no one is sure what would happen if one of them were to die. When Kendra died another Slayer was chosen, but if Buffy dies, what then? Would another new Slayer be chosen or would the power inside her go to Faith?  
  
The Council of Watchers has been the Slayer's guiding institution for several millennia now. Council and Slayer are connected in ways not even Travers fully understands. The Watchers always know when one Slayer dies. They always know which girls have the potential to be called as a Slayer, should the current one die, though they have been known to miss the odd candidate now and then.  
  
Now they know that something has happened.  
  
"The signs are clear," Travers sighs, leaning back in his chair. "One of the Slayers died and we need to know who, how, and what will happen now."  
  
He looks across the desk at his subordinate. Rose McNamara is a young Watcher, eager and enthusiastic. She has scored the best test results in the Watcher exams since Rupert Giles. She is an expert in Slayer lore and has read up on everything concerning Slayers' deaths and the process of the Calling.  
  
"Very well, Rose," Travers finally says. "You will go to Sunnydale on the next available flight. Find out what happened with Buffy and Faith! Should it become necessary you are allowed to contact Rupert Giles, but we want those answers."  
  
"I understand," Rose nods.  
  
"Then go!"  
  
#  
  
General Robert Allen looks at the report on his desk and shakes his head.  
  
"This is a disaster," he mumbles.  
  
He has never been particularly fond of Margaret Walsh. Actually, he is sure there is a picture of her in the dictionary right next to the term 'Mad Scientist'. He can't deny she is brilliant, of course, but that doesn't make her any trustworthier in his mind.  
  
Or didn't, actually, seeing as Walsh is in all probability dead now.  
  
"This is all we have?" he asks his aide.  
  
"Yes, sir. The live feed from the surveillance system in the Initiative stopped shortly after the initial explosion. Observers are in the vicinity, but there is still too much activity going on around that crater to mount any kind of recovery operation. We are currently busy bringing in fake FEMA orders and uniforms to cover our troops."  
  
What has Walsh been thinking, Allen wonders, putting this base below a college?  
  
"Any update on the status of 314 or the Converter?"  
  
"The Converter seems to have been shut down, probably the automatic safeguards kicking in. No danger from that point for the moment, sir. As far as 314 goes, though, we don't know."  
  
Great, Allen thinks. The greatest weapon ever developed and they have no clue where it is.  
  
"Run that recording by me again," he orders.  
  
The monitor in front of him flares to life and General Robert Allen watches as the experiment called Adam One walks out of the flaming debris of the Initiative and disappears.  
  
THE END OF CHAPTER 1 


End file.
